"Gray Plymouth Rock hath yet a tongue, and Concord is not dumb; And voices from our fathers" graves and from the future come: They call on us to stand our ground--they charge us still to be Not only free from chains ourselves, but foremost to make free!"
It is of little consequence who is on the throne, if there be behind it a power mightier than the throne. It matters not what is the theory of the government, if the practice of the government be unjust and tyrannical. We rise in rebellion against a despotism incomparably more dreadful than that which induced the colonists to take up arms against the mother country; not on account of a three-penny tax on tea, but because fetters of living iron are fastened on the limbs of millions of our countrymen, and our most sacred rights are trampled in the dust. As citizens of the State, we appeal to the State in vain for protection and redress. As citizens of the United States, we are treated as outlaws in one half of the country, and the national government consents to our destruction. We are denied the right of locomotion, freedom of speech, the right of pet.i.tion, the liberty of the press, the right peaceably to a.s.semble together to protest against oppression and plead for liberty--at least in thirteen States of the Union. If we venture, as avowed and unflinching abolitionists, to travel South of Mason and Dixon"s line, we do so at the peril of our lives. If we would escape torture and death, on visiting any of the slave States, we must stifle our conscientious convictions, bear no testimony against cruelty and tyranny, suppress the struggling emotions of humanity, divest ourselves of all letters and papers of an anti-slavery character, and do homage to the slaveholding power--or run the risk of a cruel martyrdom! These are appalling and undeniable facts.
Three millions of the American people are crushed under the American Union! They are held as slaves--trafficked as merchandise--registered as goods and chattels! The government gives them no protection--the government is their enemy--the government keeps them in chains!
There they lie bleeding--we are prostrate by their side--in their sorrows and sufferings we partic.i.p.ate--their stripes are inflicted on our bodies, their shackles are fastened on our limbs, their cause is ours! The Union which grinds them to the dust rests upon us, and with them we will struggle to overthrow it!
The Const.i.tution, which subjects them to hopeless bondage, is one that we cannot swear to support! Our motto is, "NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS," either religious or political. They are the fiercest enemies of mankind, and the bitterest foes of G.o.d! We separate from them not in anger, not in malice, not for a selfish purpose, not to do them an injury, not to cease warning, exhorting, reproving them for their crimes, not to leave the perishing bondman to his fate--O no! But to clear our skirts of innocent blood--to give the oppressor no countenance--to signify our abhorrence of injustice and cruelty--to testify against an unG.o.dly compact--to cease striking hands with thieves and consenting with adulterers--to make no compromise with tyranny--to walk worthily of our high profession--to increase our moral power over the nation--to obey G.o.d and vindicate the gospel of his Son--hasten the downfall of slavery in America, and throughout the world!
We are not acting under a blind impulse. We have carefully counted the cost of this warfare, and are prepared to meet its consequences.
It will subject us to reproach, persecution, infamy--it will prove a fiery ordeal to all who shall pa.s.s through it--it may cost us our lives. We shall be ridiculed as fools, accused as visionaries, branded as disorganizers, reviled as madmen, threatened and perhaps punished as traitors. But we shall bide our time. Whether safety or peril, whether victory or defeat, whether life or death be ours, believing that our feet are planted on an eternal foundation, that our position is sublime and glorious, that our faith in G.o.d is rational and steadfast, that we have exceeding great and precious promises on which to rely, THAT WE ARE IN THE RIGHT, we shall not falter nor be dismayed, "though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea,"--though our ranks be thinned to the number of "three hundred men." Freemen! are you ready for the conflict? Come what may, will you sever the chain that binds you to a slaveholding government, and declare your independence?
Up, then, with the banner of revolution! Not to shed blood--not to injure the person or estate of any oppressor--not by force and arms to resist any law--not to countenance a servile insurrection--not to wield any carnal weapons! No--ours must be a bloodless strife, excepting _our_ blood be shed--for we aim, as did Christ our leader, not to destroy men"s lives, but to save them--to overcome evil with good--to conquer through suffering for righteousness" sake--to set the captive free by the potency of truth!
Secede, then, from the government. Submit to its exactions, but pay it no allegiance, and give it no voluntary aid. Fill no offices under it. Send no senators or representatives to the national or State legislature; for what you cannot conscientiously perform yourself, you cannot ask another to perform as your agent. Circulate a declaration of DISUNION FROM SLAVEHOLDERS, throughout the country.
Hold ma.s.s meetings--a.s.semble in conventions--nail your banners to the mast!
Do you ask what can be done, if you abandon the ballot-box? What did the crucified Nazarene do without the elective franchise? What did the apostles do? What did the glorious army of martyrs and confessors do? What did Luther and his intrepid a.s.sociates do? What can women and children do? What has Father Mathew done for teetotalism?
What has Daniel O"Connell done for Irish repeal? "Stand, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breast-plate of righteousness," and arrayed in the whole armor of G.o.d!
The form of government that shall succeed the present government of the United States, let time determine. It would be a waste of time to argue that question, until the people are regenerated and turned from their iniquity. Ours is no anarchical movement, but one of order and obedience. In ceasing from oppression, we establish liberty.
What is now fragmentary, shall in due time be crystallized, and shine like a gem set in the heavens, for a light to all coming ages.
Finally--we believe that the effect of this movement will be,--First, to create discussion and agitation throughout the North; and these will lead to a general perception of its grandeur and importance.
Secondly, to convulse the slumbering South like an earthquake, and convince her that her only alternative is, to abolish slavery, or be abandoned by that power on which she now relies for safety.
Thirdly, to attack the slave power in its most vulnerable point, and to carry the battle to the gate.
Fourthly, to exalt the moral sense, increase the moral power, and invigorate the moral const.i.tution of all who heartily espouse it.
We reverently believe that, in withdrawing from the American Union, we have the G.o.d of justice with us. We know that we have our enslaved countrymen with us. We are confident that all free hearts will be with us. We are certain that tyrants and their abettors will be against us.
In behalf of the Executive Committee of the American Anti-Slavery Society,
WM. LLOYD GARRISON, _President_.
WENDELL PHILLIPS, } _Secretaries_.
MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN, }
_Boston, May_ 20, 1844.
LETTER FROM FRANCIS JACKSON.
BOSTON, 4TH July, 1844
_To His Excellency George N. Briggs_:
SIR--Many years since, I received from the Executive of the Commonwealth a commission as Justice of the Peace. I have held the office that it conferred upon me till the present time, and have found it a convenience to myself, and others. It might continue to be so, could I consent longer to hold it. But paramount considerations forbid, and I herewith transmit to you my commission, respectfully asking you to accept my resignation.
While I deem it a duty to myself to take this step, I feel called on to state the reasons that influence me.
In entering upon the duties of the office in question, I complied with the requirements of the law, by taking an oath "_to support the Const.i.tution of the United States_." I regret that I ever took that oath. Had I then as maturely considered its full import, and the obligations under which it is understood, and meant to lay those who take it, as I have done since, I certainly never would have taken it, seeing, as I now do, that the Const.i.tution of the United States contains provisions calculated and intended to foster, cherish, uphold and perpetuate _slavery_. It pledges the country to guard and protect the slave system so long as the slaveholding States choose to retain it. It regards the slave code as lawful in the States which enact it. Still more, "it has done that, which, until its adoption, was never before done for African slavery. It took it out of its former category of munic.i.p.al law and local life, adopted it as a national inst.i.tution, spread around it the broad and sufficient shield of national law, and thus gave to slavery a national existence."
Consequently, the oath to support the Const.i.tution of the United States is a solemn promise to do that which is morally wrong; that which is a violation of the natural rights of man, and a sin in the sight of G.o.d.
I am not, in this matter, const.i.tuting myself a judge of others. I do not say that no honest man can take such an oath, and abide by it.
I only say, that _I_ would not now deliberately take it; and that, having inconsiderately taken it, I can no longer suffer it to lie upon my soul. I take back the oath, and ask you, sir, to take back the commission, which was the occasion of my taking it.
I am aware that my course in this matter is liable to be regarded as singular, if not censurable; and I must, therefore, be allowed to make a more specific statement of those _provisions of the Const.i.tution_ which support the enormous wrong, the heinous sin of slavery.
The very first Article of the Const.i.tution takes slavery at once under its legislative protection, as a basis of representation in the popular branch of the National Legislature. It regards slaves under the description "of all other _persons_"--as of only three-fifths of the value of free persons; thus to appearance undervaluing them in comparison with freemen. But its dark and involved phraseology seems intended to blind us to the consideration, that those underrated slaves are merely a _basis_, not the _source_ of representation; that by the laws of all the States where they live, they are regarded not as _persons_; but as _things_; that they are not the _const.i.tuency_ of the representative, but his property; and that the necessary effect of this provision of the Const.i.tution is, to take legislative power out of the hands of _men_, as such, and give it to the mere possessors of goods and chattels. Fixing upon thirty thousand persons, as the smallest number that shall send one member into the House of Representatives, it protects slavery by distributing legislative power in a free and in a slave State thus: To a congressional district in South Carolina, containing fifty thousand slaves, claimed as the property of five hundred whites, who hold, on an average, one hundred apiece, it gives one Representative in Congress; to a district in Ma.s.sachusetts containing a population of thirty thousand five hundred, one Representative is a.s.signed. But inasmuch as a slave is never permitted to vote, the fifty thousand persons in a district in Carolina form no part of "the const.i.tuency;"
that is found only in the five hundred free persons. Five hundred freemen of Carolina could send one Representative to Congress, while it would take thirty thousand five hundred freemen of Ma.s.sachusetts, to do the same thing: that is, one slaveholder in Carolina is clothed by the Const.i.tution with the same political power and influence in the Representatives Hall at Washington, as sixty Ma.s.sachusetts men like you and me, who "eat their bread in the sweat of their own brows."
According to the census of 1830, and the ratio of representation based upon that, slave property added twenty-five members to the House of Representatives. And as it has been estimated, (as an approximation to the truth,) that the two and a half million slaves in the United States are held as property by about two hundred and fifty thousand persons--giving an average of ten slaves to each slaveholder, those twenty-five Representatives, each chosen, at most, by only ten thousand voters, and probably by less than three-fourths of that number, were the representatives, not only of the two hundred and fifty thousand persons who chose them; but of _property_ which, five years ago, when slaves were lower in market, than at present, were estimated, by the man who is now the most prominent candidate for the Presidency, at twelve hundred millions of dollars--a sum, which, by the natural increase of five years, and the enhanced value resulting from a more prosperous state of the planting interest, cannot now be less than fifteen hundred millions of dollars.
All this vast amount of property, as it is "peculiar," is also identical in its character. In Congress, as we have seen, it is animated by one spirit, moves in one ma.s.s, and is wielded with one aim; and when we consider that tyranny is always timid, and despotism distrustful, we see that this vast money power would be false to itself, did it not direct all its eyes and hands, and put forth all its ingenuity and energy, to one end--self-protection and self-perpetuation. And this it has ever done. In all the vibrations of the political scale, whether in relation to a Bank or Sub-Treasury, Free Trade or a Tariff, this immense power has moved, and will continue to move, in one ma.s.s, for its own protection.
While the weight of the slave influence is thus felt in the House of Representatives, "in the Senate of the Union," says John Quincy Adams, "the proportion of slaveholding power is still greater. By the influence of slavery in the States where the inst.i.tution is tolerated, over their elections, no other than a slaveholder can rise to the distinction of obtaining a seat in the Senate; and thus, of the fifty-two members of the federal Senate, twenty-six are owners of slaves, and are as effectually representatives of that interest, as the eighty-eight members elected by them to the House."
The dominant power which the Const.i.tution gives to the slave interest, as thus seen and exercised in the _Legislative Halls_ of our nation, is equally obvious and obtrusive in every other department of the National government.
In the _Electoral colleges_, the same cause produces the same effect--the same power is wielded for the same purpose, as in the Halls of Congress. Even the preliminary nominating conventions, before they dare name a candidate for the highest office in the gift of the people, must ask of the Genius of slavery, to what votary she will show herself propitious. This very year, we see both the great political parties doing homage to the slave power, by nominating each a slaveholder for the chair of the State. The candidate of one party declares. "I should have opposed, and would continue to oppose, any scheme whatever of emanc.i.p.ation, either gradual or immediate;"
and adds, "It is not true, and I rejoice that it is not true, that either of the two great parties of this country has any design or aim at abolition. I should deeply lament it, if it were true."[94]
[Footnote 94: Henry Clay"s speech in the United States Senate in 1839, and confirmed at Raleigh, N.C. 1844.]
The other party nominates a man who says, "I have no hesitation in declaring that I am in favor of the immediate re-annexation of Texas to the territory and government of the United States."
Thus both the political parties, and the candidates of both, vie with each other, in offering allegiance to the slave power, as a condition precedent to any hope of success in the struggle for the executive chair; a seat that, for more than three-fourths of the existence of our const.i.tutional government, has been occupied by a slaveholder.
The same stern despotism overshadows even the sanctuaries of _justice_. Of the nine Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, five are slaveholders, and of course, must be faithless to their own interest, as well as recreant to the power that gives them place, or must, so far as _they_ are concerned, give both to law and const.i.tution such a construction as shall justify the language of John Quincy Adams, when he says--"The legislative, executive, and judicial authorities, are all in their hands--for the preservation, propagation, and perpetuation of the black code of slavery. Every law of the legislature becomes a link in the chain of the slave; every executive act a rivet to his hapless fate; every judicial decision a perversion of the human intellect to the justification of wrong."
Thus by merely adverting but briefly to the theory and the practical effect of this clause of the Const.i.tution, that I have sworn to support, it is seen that it throws the political power of the nation into the hands of the slaveholders; a body of men, which, however it may be regarded by the Const.i.tution as "persons," is in fact and practical effect, a vast moneyed corporation, bound together by an indissoluble unity of interest, by a common sense of a common danger; counselling at all times for its common protection; wielding the whole power, and controlling the destiny of the nation.
If we look into the legislative halls, slavery is seen in the chair of the presiding officer of each, and controlling the action of both.
Slavery occupies, by prescriptive right, the Presidential chair. The paramount voice that comes from the temple of national justice, issues from the lips of slavery. The army is in the hands of slavery, and at her bidding, must encamp in the everglades of Florida, or march from the Missouri to the borders of Mexico, to look after her interests in Texas.
The navy, even that part that is cruising off the coast of Africa, to suppress the foreign slave trade, is in the hands of slavery.
Freemen of the North, who have even dared to lift up their voice against slavery, cannot travel through the slave States, but at the peril of their lives.
The representatives of freemen are forbidden, on the floor of Congress, to remonstrate against the encroachments of slavery, or to pray that she would let her poor victims go.
I renounce my allegiance to a Const.i.tution that enthrones such a power, wielded for the purpose of depriving me of my rights, of robbing my countrymen of their liberties, and of securing its own protection, support and perpetuation.
Pa.s.sing by that clause of the Const.i.tution, which restricted Congress for twenty years, from pa.s.sing any law against the African slave trade, and which gave authority to raise a revenue on the stolen sons of Africa, I come to that part of the fourth article, which guarantees protection against "_domestic violence_," and which pledges to the South the military force of the country, to protect the masters against their insurgent slaves: binds us, and our children, to shoot down our fellow-countrymen, who may rise, in emulation of our revolutionary fathers, to vindicate their inalienable "right to life, _liberty_ and the pursuit of happiness,"--this clause of the Const.i.tution, I say distinctly, I never will support.
That part of the Const.i.tution which provides for the surrender of fugitive slaves, I never have supported and never will. I will join in no slave-hunt. My door shall stand open, as it has long stood, for the panting and trembling victim of the slave-hunter. When I shut it against him, may G.o.d shut the door of his mercy against me! Under this clause of the Const.i.tution, and designed to carry it into effect, slavery has demanded that laws should be pa.s.sed, and of such a character, as have left the free citizen of the North without protection for his own liberty. The question, whether a man seized in a free State as a slave, _is_ a slave or not, the law of Congress does not allow a jury to determine: but refers it to the decision of a Judge of a United States" Court, or even of the humblest State magistrate, it may be, upon the testimony or affidavit of the party most deeply interested to support the claim. By virtue of this law, freemen have been seized and dragged into perpetual slavery--and should I be seized by a slave-hunter in any part of the country where I am not personally known, neither the Const.i.tution nor laws of the United States would shield me from the same destiny.